Anyone who downloaded apps like Yelp or Instagram to an Apple device between 2009 to 2012 may be eligible for a small payout. Earlier this week, a settlement was reached in San Francisco federal court to resolve a class action lawsuit that accused eight apps of violating privacy regulations via the iOS "Find Friends" feature.

The companies - Kik, Gowalla, Foursquare, Foodspotting, Twitter, Path, Instagram and Yelp - agreed to pay a total of $5.3 million toward a 2012 privacy lawsuit filed by consumers for exploiting "Find Friends" - allegedly bypassing privacy settings to obtain users' contact lists, and then transferring them to business servers.

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“The Defendant perpetuated this fraudulent activity knowingly, and with the intent to obtain data, including the mobile browsing activities of its users,” the 2012 Path app privacy lawsuit claimed.

The companies argued that the storage of users' contact lists was needed for the "Find Friends" feature to work. US District Judge Jon Tigar disagreed, saying that companies' privacy regulations need to be more transparent.